Migration is seasonal, but weather dependent. Rain and unfavorable winds almost shut down Fall migration at St. Marks NWR, earlier this week. It is entirely possible that students partying in the bars and nightspots of Tallahassee outnumbered migrating birds on Wednesday night when just over ten thousand birds flew over the refuge.
On Thursday night, however, a frontal passage brought strong winds out of the North. When I woke up at 5:00 am on Friday morning and checked the Birdcast dashboard for Wakulla County, it showed that over 348,000 birds were currently in flight over the county and that over three million had already transited the county that night.
I grabbed a quick breakfast and got on the road down to the refuge.
A lumpy moon, somewhere between full and half, lit the beach as I walked East as far as I could go and, then, waited for first light so I could start birding along the coastal strand with the sun at my back. The Eastern horizon was just beginning to show color. With a strong North wind, it was chilly in the predawn darkness.
Except for the sound of the wind, it was quiet. My phone has an app, Merlin, that has a sound identification function. I turned it on and pointed the microphone end of the phone towards the sky. It registered Swainson’s Thrush and Palm Warbler. Too high and faint for my ears. I watched the moon through my binoculars, but saw no migrants crossing its face.
Around 7:00 am, things started happening. Black Skimmers began barking, out in the marshes Clapper Rails grunted and an American Bittern flew in, silhouetted against the brightening sky.
I began to walk back, looking for birds in the Wolfberry hedges. Small flocks of Least Sandpipers were feeding in the wrack line. A Virginia Rail flushed from the beach grass and skittered along the beach, staying ahead of me. Small birds were flying in low from the Gulf. Most were warbler sized and in groups of two or three. Some disappeared into the Wolfberry and some continued North across the salt marsh. These were overshoots, birds that had started a trans-Gulf flight, but decided to turn back. In total, I saw probably two dozen birds flying in.
It was frustrating birding as I walked back to the Lighthouse. I saw many birds moving in the bushes, but was only able to identify a few; a Palm Warbler, two Yellow Warblers and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
Lighthouse Pond was a mass of frenetic avian activity, mostly in its Southwest corner. Snowy, Reddish & Great Egrets, Tricolored & Great Blue Herons, White Ibis, a few Roseate Spoonbills and a lone flamingo were working the surface. Greater Yellowlegs were walking and swimming between them. Circling above them and plunge-diving were dozens of Forster’s Terns, Laughing Gulls and Black Skimmers. Searching among the many Blue-winged Teals on the pond, I found a Northern Pintail, an American Wigeon and several shovelers. The exposed mudflats on the pond had Short-billed Dowitchers, Least & Western Sandpipers, Black-bellied & Semipalmated Plovers and Willets.
I continued birding the refuge until noon, working the Cedar Point and Tower Pond trails, looking for migrant songbirds. I found Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Magnolia, Black-and-white, Yellow-rumped and Prairie Warbler. There were a lot of Eastern Phoebes, another cuckoo and a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I had over forty Gray Catbirds.
During October, migrants pass through St. Marks and we will likely see a few more big nights. It is also the month when our winter residents begin to return. Today, I saw Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It’s time to look for any returning Vermilion Flycatcher and the winter duck populations are just beginning to build.
Head down to St. Marks. Things are getting interesting.